Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got lots of questions about syncing, as well as customized keyboards, sharing iPhone apps, managing iTunes, and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions

Some apps are almost universal. Chances are you may find a use for one of these apps in your daily goings-on, just as I have. All links are iTunes links.


Flicktunes, $0.99
Remember our chat about driving and using your iPhone? Flicktunes makes controlling the iPod in your iPhone (or touch) much easier when you have to focus on other things -- like driving. Flick your finger left or right to navigate your playlist, up or down to start or stop the music. The album art is all you see, plus a speaker icon indicating playback. It's super easy, a simple app, but very useful if you're driving or otherwise occupied while jamming out.

Army Knife, $1.99
If you need to measure something in a jiffy, Army Knife is a 9-in-1 tool with several measuring tools. There's a protractor, a caliper and a tape measure, plus a level and a "heart monitor" (you tap as your heart beats). There's a unit converter with distance, volume, weight and temperature conversions, and a flashlight and whistle. The flashlight, yes, is just a screen of white, but the whistle is kind of fun and will irritate your pets (please note: I do not condone irritating your pets, please do not flame me for hating animals).

Todo, $9.99
If you use Remember the Milk or Toodledoo, you should know that Todo syncs with them. There's also a free sync app for your desktop, which is essentially a backup... except there's a way to sync Todo with The Hit List via iCal. Is it optimal? No, but until THL has an iPhone app (not criticizing the developer as I'd rather it be done right than fast) this does the trick to an extent. Todo even without sync is a beautiful thing to behold and full of flexibility. In fact, the flexibility of the app is a little shocking, given the lowly status of the "to do" genre of apps. If you need a listmaker/to do/checklist app with or without sync capabilities, this is one of the best out there. Worth the $9.99 for what you get.

CardStar, free
If you're tired of carrying around a dozen membership or discount cards, CardStar will help you out. There are templates for many retailers and discount systems (air miles and so forth), and you can choose from a variety of barcode types. I was able to experiment with the codes a bit and test things at each of my errand stops (Blockbuster, Kroger, etc.), eventually winnowing my keychain down to just 2 keys and a door opener.

BigOven, free
I've toyed around with a few cooking apps, but if you're out and about (and have a signal) BigOven is a great way to throw a dish together based on an ingredient. BigOven basically makes everyone an Iron Chef -- at least as far as cool recipes goes. It can't help you cook things, and the text rendering could be a little more clear, but you can favorite stuff (with a BigOven free account), and copy an entire recipe for emailing. I'm not saying the interface is great, but the BigOven database is huge and stocked with what looks like good recipes.

I've always thought that the lack of iCal todo syncing was one of the strangest omissions on the iPhone and iPod touch. Now, finally, it's possible thanks to Appigo Sync (beta), a free small helper application for the Mac designed to interface with Appigo's $10 Todo iPhone app (iTunes link).

Todo on the iPhone has been able to sync with online services Remember the Milk and Toodledo for a while now. With the addition of Appigo Sync, however, you can now get your todos from iCal (though, unfortunately, it cannot sync with both your Mac and an online service). Like most other desktop syncing solutions for the iPhone, it works over WiFi and requires your iPhone and Mac to be on the same network.

Appigo Sync is a free download. Todo for iPhone is $9.99; there's also a free Todo Lite limited to seven tasks, but which will allow you to test out the syncing (both iTunes links).

Have you ever been reading an email in Leopard's Mail.app and thought, "Oh, I need to remember that"? If you can right click, then you can remember anything, quickly and easily, using Todos. When you come across something in an email you want to remember, first highlight the text.

Next, right-click on it and select "New Todo." The current message window will then show a notepad-style view of the selected text. From there, you can change the due date and priority. Finally, assign that todo to the iCal calendar of your choice by clicking the orange arrow/circle beside the item.

Mail displays Todos in the sidebar. To see your tasks in iCal, select "Show To Do List" from the "View" menu.

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.

TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings.

With students heading back to school around the country today, many are heading back with an iPhone (possibly a iPhone 3G, no doubt). In this post, I'm going to suggest a few iPhone applications that you can use to stay on task, and, of course, "make the grade." Most of these applications are free, considering that most students are low on money (especially college students).

Assignments (iTunes Link)
Assignments is an application that, as the name implies, allows you to keep track of your assignments and classes. This is perfect for both teachers and students that need to keep track of assignments in each class. Not only can you add an assignment with a due date/time and importance, but you can also add recordings. Being able to make a voice recording of your assignment is a quick way to make a reminder, etc.

The "Overview" tab allows you to see anything upcoming or due. You can sort by "All" or "Due Soon." You can also search through your assignments. In the "Assignments" tab, you can view all assignments sorted by class. The "Notes" section allows you to quickly jot a note, add a title, and add a date/time.

Overall, this application performs smoothly and works well when adding/deleting assignments and classes. You can view screenshots of Assignments.app in our gallery. Assignments sells for $5.99 (US) at the iTunes App Store.

VoiceNotes (iTunes Link)
VoiceNotes is a plain and simple way to quickly record a quick note, or even a lecture (just make sure you have enough space on your iPhone). Tapping on "Quick Voice Note" will start recording immediately, but is limited as to the length of the recording. If you tap on the + button at the top, you will be given more recording length.

VoiceNotes allows you to sync notes back to your computer using some additional software provided by the developer. Overall, this is a solid app and can definitely be used for the quick "remember to bring these books to class tomorrow" voice notes.

You can download VoiceNotes for free from the iTunes App Store.

To Do (iTunes Link)
One of our fellow TUAW-ers developed this application, and we can't get over its ease of use and flexibility in creating a simple to-do list. With To Do, you can quickly and easily add a to-do, set priority (and order), and even add a note.

To Do will even allow you to see how many tasks have yet to be completed, right from the home screen. With To Do, you will never forget about that writing assignment for English class. Best of all, this application is on a college student's budget: It's absolutely free!

Camera.app (Built-in)
Never underestimate the power of the built-in camera on your iPhone. If you find that your instructor erases the board way too fast, or if you need to capture a photo of the current slide on the screen, then just get out your iPhone. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... clicks and you're done! A picture saved in memory, and you didn't even have to write anything. You can also combine Camera with Evernote (iTunes link) to create more structured notes or geocoding around your photos -- great for architecture students or for budding meteorologists.


Did we miss something? Do you have another application that you like/use, but didn't on the list? The party doesn't stop with the post, it continues in the comments below. Be sure to share your favorite iPhone applications to help students "make the grade."

I've been noodling around on a hand-me-down iPhone with no service for over a week now and I find a few apps keep me coming back again and again. Over the next week or so, each of us with an iPhone or iPod touch will tell you our favorite or most-used apps.

1. ShoZu - OK, I use this maybe a little less than AirMe, but only because I don't use the iPhone as a cell phone. AirMe is great when you're out and about and need to send a pic instantly (to Flickr, in my case). ShoZu is like AirMe on steroids, minus the instant upload. That's a good thing, in fact. If you're a big fan of blasting your photos and text posts to a bunch of services at once, ShoZu is ideal. There are over a dozen services it'll hook into, and you can set up a "CC" list so whatever you upload pushes to several places at once. We'll put this through the wringer soon and give more details in a full review.

2. Texas Hold'em - Like Steven said, this is a port of the iPod version. But I have to give Apple a lot of credit for showing everyone how to make use of the iPhone's features. Tip the iPhone over and you see a top-down table view, throw your cards into the pot to fold, etc. There's a lot of polish on this and it is much cheaper than playing the real thing with my card sharp buddies (none of whom have mortgages, apparently). Mike Rose notes his one big gripe with this Hold'em, in contrast to the classic iPod version: no way to have your own music play in the background while you rake in the chips.

3. ToDo - From our very own Erica Sadun comes this super-simple app that's just a "to do" list for you GTD or listmaking freaks. Aside from the simplicity of the app itself, the badge on the app icon is really handy if you're trying to stay on top of things and only need a glance to see what is pending. One would think Apple could do this with iCal to-do's, but apparently creating a great poker app is an easier task. Perhaps they can use ToDo as well?

App Store links --
ShoZu and AirMe
Texas Hold'Em
To Do

[thanks for the copy editing Dave!]

So for quite a while now I've been using nothing more complicated than TextEdit to keep a list of what I've got on my plate any given day -- I stuck an "Untitled" text file in the top corner of my screen, and just kept it open all the time. But I wasn't quite satisfied with that -- at the end of the day, I still had this text file open, I never remembered to save what was in there, and it just wasn't as elegant a solution as I wanted. Wasn't there anything I could keep open as a memopad, that was smart enough to save itself and slide out of the way when I didn't need it?

A friend recommended Sidenote, and it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for -- like the Quicksilver Shelf (which I'm using religiously nowadays) it sits in drawer on the side of your desktop, can be pulled open momentarily (either with the mouse or a hotkey) and then slides right back out of view when you're done. Just like TextEdit, it allows for a nice variety of text formatting, and unlike TextEdit, it saves in a repository rather than a file. I only use one note so far, but there's functionality for multiple notes in there as well.

We last mentioned Sidenote way back in 2005, and since then it's been upgraded to 1.7.3, and streamlined a few already streamlined features. Very nice and easy app -- for the purpose, it was exactly what I needed. It's available as donationware from developer Pierre Chatel.

Anxiety is a new Leopard-only "lightweight To-Do management" tool that integrates with iCal and Mail to give you easy access to your To-Dos in a sleek interface. It displays either all of your To-Dos or To-Dos from a single iCal calendar in one of those translucent HUD palettes that are becoming so popular these days. It also offers easy To-Do creation with a single click on the check-mark on the top right of the interface. In some ways it's like a stand-alone version of DoBeDo Dashboard widget that we recently posted on. You can use either the Dock icon and a menubar item to hide the palette (and either can be turned off).

Anxiety is a free download from Model Concept (donations requested).

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Okay, I couldn't resist posting about the new to-do list app LifeShaker from Funky Cloud, if only to comment on their clever marketing. This is the first piece of software I can remember to have a movie-style trailer (not just a screencast).

LifeShaker is an interesting take on to-do organizing. It presents a 3x3 grid into which you can dump your various goals, action steps and categories. As the name suggests, you can "shake" your grid to re-arrange your goals (presumably as a kind of self-motivation). It's an unusual approach; how effective it might be I can only imagine.

In my brief testing, I found the interface to be a bit annoying, requiring excessive use of on-screen buttons for data entry t(instead of just letting me double-click on blank list entries). Still it's worth a look if you're interested in a non-traditional to do list.

LifeShaker is $29.00US and requires Mac OS 10.3.9 or higher. A demo is available (points off, however, for the use of an installer).

[via MacMinute]

Scott Morrison's fantastic MailTags 2.0 is hands-down the best (and not because it is the only) plug-in that brings the wonders of tagging and iCal integration to Apple Mail. We've mentioned it plenty of times here on TUAW, and with good reason: Scott has put this new version of MailTags and its healthy dose of new features through a rigorous beta testing period, and tonight the plug-in makes that coveted leap from 'beta' to 'official release.' While Scott pops some well-deserved bubbly to celebrate his hard work, check out this list of tasty features designed for those who need more from an integrated desktop email client:

• IMAP support - sync your tags over IMAP servers and use them to keep your mail organized and synced across any Mac you have MailTags installed on
• A much-improved integrated interface for viewing and editing tags
• The ability to view tags in Mail's List view (an extra, optional column to let you know a message is tagged)
• Dynamic coloring of messages based on project, approaching due dates and priorities
• Integration with iCal, allowing you to create to dos and events right from Mail
• Including tags in your outbound messages for other MailTags users
• Better integration with Mail's search tools, allowing you to specify searching only for message tags, projects or even notes you've applied with MailTags (in addition to Mail's default criteria of Entire Message, From, To, etc.)
• Better integration with Mail's smart mailboxes
• Applescript compatibility

I've been a happy user of MailTags 2.0 since it the early days of the beta, and I tip my hat to Scott for releasing such a great product. You can grab your own demo that runs for 21 days, while a license costs $29.95, with educational and volume discounts available upon requests.

Jim McGowan's Do It is a handy little todo manager we found back in February that is fairly feature-packed and well integrated with Mac OS X. It offers .Mac syncing of todos, an Address Book plug-in, iCal export/import and even a Quicksilver plug-in for quick todo entry. The app has been progressing nicely over the months, and just this morning I noticed a small but useful update notification for v2.5 that brings Japanese language support and a Dutch version of the help files. In addition, Do It has joined the quickly expanding ranks of apps that use Andy Matuschak's excellent Sparkle module to enable self-updating for new versions (users of apps like Adium should be familiar with this). From now on, a simple update notification will appear, allowing the app to download the new version, install it and relaunch - all with only two clicks from you, the user.

As a happy user of Do It since we found it, I'm glad that it will be one less app that I have to deal with downloading, quitting, dragging somewhere to overwrite and relaunching. Automation, my dear readers, is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Do It is provided surprisingly as donationware from Mr. McGowan's site.

Do It is quite possibly the most feature-packed mini-todo widget app ever written. For a birds-eye view, it features integration with Quicksilver, Address Book and iCal, as well as .Mac syncing and AppleScript-ability. As Tim Gaden puts it: the only thing missing is a kitchen sink.

Fundamentally, Do It is (surprise) a todo manager. But thanks to shaking hands with all these other apps, you can import/export todos from iCal, install an Address Book contextual menu item for easy contact reminder creation, add items from the most excellent Quicksilver or simply make it do nearly anything you want with the power of AppleScript.

Despite all this impressive functionality, Do It remains freeware and available from Jim McGowan's site.

[Update: my bad - Do It is an app, not a widget. I tried this app out a little while ago, and in finally getting around to writing it up, I mixed this up with another todo widget I just found. Sorry guys.]

Scott Morrison has released a 6th beta of MailTags 2, his quintessential tagging and organizing plug-in for Mail.app that we're big fans of. This new beta heralds a 'feature complete' status for the plug-in, meaning that Scott has implemented all the new features and tricks that version 2 will have, and now it's simply time to clean up the code and stomp out the bugs. Also new in this version is an updated UI with a slick new pop-up window for entering todo and event information (pictured). This makes recording events and staying on top of things with MailTags much more functional and enjoyable, causing Scott's plug-in to rise even farther towards the top of my list of apps that help me get more done with my email.

MailTags 2 costs $25 and can be had from indev.

There wasn't much podcast-worthy news to chat about last week, so we thought it was the perfect time to do something different and bring you the first TUAW screencast evar! In this podcast (netcast!), I demonstrate that trick we covered last month of how to add iCal events and todos from Quicksilver, and I've ironed out a few details for a much more usable process. I figured this would be a great way to demonstrate some of Quicksilver's unique power with purty moving pictures, instead of the typical non-moving pictures. This screencast clocks in at 7:32, and it's 21MB of H.264 goodness.

Speaking of goodness, we're soliciting feedback on this screencast (as if you need to be asked). This is my first screencast, so it's a little rough around the edges. I sound a lot better podcasting-wise, though I'm still working on picking up a Samson USB mic that reader Jules Stoop recommended, especially since I've seen it written up as *the* killer podcasting mic (I'm trying to find a good deal, since $80 is a little steep right now). But let us know what you think: too fast? Too slow? Do I sound like a muppet? I have a lot to learn about moving video between the big suites, as I have some good After Effects skills I could've used to spice this up, but I couldn't find a decent codec to preserve the quality when exporting the edited video out of Final Cut Pro (I especially am accepting workflow feedback on this topic). Rest assured, this is at the top my todos (pun intended!) for the next screencast, so I'll be able to add all sorts of flying text and 3D space aliens.

But that's enough chatter for now: here's a direct link to TUAW Podcast #12, another link to our iTS podcast feed, and of course: our good ol' fashioned raw RSS feed.

Update: Our iTS feed had a little bug that prevented this video from making the list, but it has since been fixed. Podcast #12 is ready to roll from the iTS Podcast Directory, so head over and grab a copy!